


you protected me; i desired you

by stateofstasis



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Explicit Language, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mention of abuse, again not meant to put down sex workers, angsty, but if u ship meanie feel free to read it, minghao is a sex worker, okay thats enough please enjoy!!, spinoff of light is to darkness!!, yall i love chinaline so much junhao has my heart, you dont have to read light is to darkness to enjoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-11-30 09:45:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11461011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stateofstasis/pseuds/stateofstasis
Summary: minghao has nothing to be desired outside of his body. jun would like to strongly disagree.(spin-off of light is to darkness what love is to fear)





	1. you were my future

**Author's Note:**

> i did it!! more chinaline to make up for that hogwarts au which i am still trying to pick up, hope you enjoy!!

Minghao walks out of the center, his bruise obscuring his vision, but he's not about to fall over or anything. There's no room in his life for anymore bruises.

He doesn't really know what to feel- he can't really feel anything, either; his pounding black eye is pretty much the only thing he can feel right now because it  _hurts. So fucking much._

He guesses he's hungry, and heads to the nearest noodle shop he knows is just around the corner.

At least one part of him will be satisfied tonight, because for all he knows, the rest of him is itching to punch that bastard in the face.

-

He steps into the noodle store and there's only one occupied table off to the corner, so he chooses one of the seats right by the kitchen-slash-counter.

There's only one worker today, and Minghao's never seen him before.

Since the other table is already served, the waiter-slash-cook-slash-cashier comes directly to Minghao.

"What're you having?"

"One spicy miso ramen." Minghao says, and the worker's eyes seem to ghost past his obvious shiner.

"Are you Chinese?" He asks, while boiling the ramen, and Minghao mumbles a "yeah."

"Me too," he replies in Mandarin, smiling at the smaller boy. Minghao speculates that he's around Wonwoo's height, maybe slightly shorter, and his dyed hair lies messily over the bandana used to hold his hair back, to no avail. His skin is tanner than Minghao's, which isn't that strange of a sight. When he smiles his teeth show.  _He has nice teeth_ , Minghao thinks hazily around the mildly numbing pain of his bruise.

"That's nice." Minghao answers half-heartedly, setting his head between his hands and closing his eyes. 

They stay in silence while the Chinese worker prepares the ramen. Minghao must have been hungrier than he thought, because at the smell of the cooking ramen and soup, his stomach starts to growl.

 "I'm Junhui, from Shenzhen." The taller says, and Minghao takes a gulp of soup and ramen.

"Minghao, from Anshan." He replies in between bites.

The ramen is good, the springy noodles have just enough bite and the soup is flavourful and rich, but not overpowering, with just the right amount of spice. The egg is cooked on the outside and the yolk is deliciously runny, and Minghao finds himself finishing the bowl in under ten minutes. 

"Hungry?" Jun asks, laughing quietly. The younger just nods and hands him the money.

"Thanks for the meal." He says, and waves behind him as he leaves.

-

It surprises him a few days later when Jun shows up at his workplace, and then again two hours later, when he's sitting against Jun in his bed, his back sore and his hips protesting against any small movement.

"Are you feeling okay?" Jun asks, semi-amused.

"No, you asshole. I can barely move," Minghao replies. He doesn't want to admit it but he enjoys the satiny feeling of Jun's honey skin against his own as he leans further into the elder.

"Sorry." The next thing Jun says makes him jump a little in surprise, and he immediately winces in pain as his back complains. 

"You don't have to apologize," He says anyway, and the response causes the dirty blonde-haired man to furrow his brows. 

"Usually people apologize if they hurt someone else."

With a slight shock, Minghao realizes he's practically forgotten about that.

-

Jun continues to return for the next two days, and when Minghao asks him where he gets all this money from, he replies: "Cooking noodles isn't the only thing I do for a living."

"Then why do you do it?"

The taller shrugs, leaning back into feather-soft pillows. "I like cooking noodles."

-

After those two days of almost-bliss with his fellow Chinese client, Minghao doesn't see him for the next week.

Instead he takes different people everyday. A 19-year-old who doesn't want to come out or deal with commitment and instead buys one-time partners; an older married man who's fed up with his wife and who is still very much bisexual despite lying to his family and wife about it; a mildly drunk college kid who just broke up with his boyfriend; and a few more whose backstories weren't as interesting, because that was how he satisfied himself.

One day, however, he's at a bar and he gets drunk during work hours, and after paying him someone leaves too many marks which are too dark against his skin and leaves bruises on his legs and some on his back.

Back home, in his sad little apartment, he cleans himself up and counts how much the bastard paid him.

Satisfied, he smiles with one corner of his mouth.

He might have gotten beaten up, but at least he got that asshole's money.

Back and legs hurting all over, he crawls into bed and drifts off to sleep.

-

"The next time someone fucking lays a hand on you, call me." Wonwoo says, and his college friend, Seungcheol, nods. Seungcheol is a dark haired, puppy-eyed man with cherry red lips almost too pretty for his face who still manages to look intimidating and yet he has the softest heart Minghao has ever seen. 

"What can you do?" The small Chinese boy replies, taking a sip of his mineral water. "It's not like it'll help. It's just an endless cycle of someone hitting someone else."

"What I can do is get that bastard to stop." Wonwoo frowns. "You should probably stick to regulars for now."

"I would really like to; only problems is my regulars aren't that regular and I also really can't afford to give more fucks." Minghao says, and he stands up to leave.

-

"What the fuck happened to you?" is the first thing Jun says when he comes back, and Minghao shrugs.

"Fell down the stairs."

"Don't give me that bullshit." Jun narrows his eyes as he gingerly runs his fingers over the tender skin of Minghao's neck. "Stairs don't leave hickeys."

The younger laughs quietly, mirthlessly. "What's it to you?"

"You're it to me." Jun says, and he gathers his right hand into a tight fist on the bed, yet gently carding his left hand's fingers through the smaller's soft chestnut hair. "Make a guy want to punch all the things that hurt you."

“You shouldn’t get too attached.” Minghao said, draping an arm across Jun’s shoulders to bring him closer. The elder raised an eyebrow inquiringly and Minghao giggled.

“One day I’m going to piss off a mafia boss or something and I’m gonna need to make a run for it, and you’re going to forget about me.”

_And I will never forget about you._ Maybe one day when he was like, 70, assuming he managed to live that long, he might have some trouble recollecting his name, but there’s no way he’ll be able to forget that weird feeling that Jun gave him that felt like all his strings were connected and all his pieces were in one place.

He would never say these words out loud. He’d rather tie stones to his words and throw them overboard, and watch them sink and die. He’d rather hide it behind a curtain so heavy he’d never lift it, and neither would Jun.

He’d rather pull the taller man closer, intertwine their legs and kiss him deeply and full of passion that he hid behind his pretense of money-fueled lust.

In fact, as he wraps both arms around the elder's neck and pulls him lower onto himself, he can sense the concern and discomfort from the other even as their lips work together like a well-oiled machine. The other's hand around his waist is hesitant and the kisses he plants down the younger's neck seem less lustful and more careful.

But just like anything that was more important than his meals for the next day and immediate life-and-death, he pushes it to the back of his mind, locks it in a cell with his previous words and throws away the key at the first touch of smooth sun-kissed skin-so unlike his own yet so alike- on his.

When he wakes up the next morning, Jun is still there.

 


	2. i was your yesterday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> maybe, for once in his life, minghao can truly be at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> update!! im really looking forward to write and for you to read this chapter :) hope you'll enjoy it!

Minghao looks over at the sleeping man beside him, and decides he's too good for him.

The morning light diffuses into the room, and as it spreads across the sheets and barely onto the pair's skin, Minghao's eyes follow the outline of Junhui's profile- his angular nose and the curve of his lips. He'd kissed those lips last night, and the thought made him brush his fingers across his own lips distractedly.

The white sheets are almost contrasted against the golden skin of Jun's back, so unsimilar to Minghao's own pale skin, that once saw the sunlight often when he used to skate as a hobby, but that glow was taken away and exchanged for bright LED lights and flashing neon signs, as if the nightly pub chatter and the touch of needy strangers had leeched the colour from his skin.

His own pale skin, which bruises so easily.

As he continues to look at Junhui- he wonders if this bordered on creepy-stalkerish- it was as if everything he'd ever done with the other man resurfaced in his mind, but unlike other clients, he doesn't feel disgust or regret or that neutral empty feeling he had every time a customer handed him the money for his services.

He feels lust, and longing, barely there but present nonetheless, catching in between his weak ribcage and the butterfly-wings of his heartbeat.

He closes his eyes and turns away from Junhui, lying back down on his side of the bed.

He falls asleep again, and when he wakes up Jun is looking at him.

-

"So where do you wanna go today?" Junhui asks as he pulls on his jeans. 

Minghao pauses from rifling through his closet, searching for a hoodie to throw on over his currently unclothed upper-half (Jun should really put on a shirt, too, it was distracting and made Minghao's heart beat faster and was generally bad for his health.).

"I wasn't aware we were spending the day together." 

"It's your off day, isn't it?" Junhui asks, finally pulling his T-shirt over his head. Minghao breathed a sigh of relief mixed with slight disappointment. 

"Yeah, but I-" Minghao stops. He isn't really sure what  _he_ was going to say he was. Busy? He had more than enough free time that day- he felt he deserved the breather.

"I like having you where I can see you. Make sure no one can get to you," Junhui says. Minghao feels like he's blushing. That was Wen Junhui for you- straightforward, honestly intimate and always saying things that Minghao wanted to frame up because of how they made him feel.

However the younger male pretends he's unfazed, as if people say cute things to him all the time that made him all warm inside like there was a tiny metaphorical toaster in his gut, like the feeling you get when you drink hot soup that was made by someone who loves you.

"Okay, you sold it. Where do you wanna go?"

"I want to bring you to the beach. Let's go to the beach," Jun says, and Minghao is attacked by another _gentle_ horde of butterflies in his stomach.

He decides they're Apollo butterflies, a.k.a  _Parnassius apollo,_ because they are apparently Junhui's favourite butterfly, which the elder excitedly informs him on their car ride to the beach when news of it being butterfly season is announced on radio.

"We should go find butterflies one day," Jun says, and Minghao nods, distracted by the other's love for something so simple.

A butterfly. Imagine that.

Heck. Minghao doesn't even have a favourite colour.

-

The beach is pretty.

Minghao admits that. Despite him not being that accustomed to going to the beach often, he admires the steely blues and greens of the ocean and how they contrast against the pale gold of the sand.

There aren't that many people there. A few dogwalkers and some couples- Minghao wonders if it's considered weird, for two guys in their early 20s to be walking on the beach alone, and if there's any other way to look at it other than as lovers.

Wow. _Lovers._ Now there's a term that Minghao can't really wrap his head around. Lover for or lover to or lover of?

When Junhui intertwines his fingers, the meaning of lover is suddenly fresh in his head. 

He might not be able to put it into words, but all he needs to know is that he wants to be them with Junhui.

"You know, I've never thought of going to the beach for fun." Maybe he would have, when he was 14 or 15. Not anymore. Now the beach is there to look pretty and occasionally be stormy and give people a source of fun.

He also might've just compared himself to a beach. The similarities are more striking than he thought, which kinda scares him a little bit.

Jun turns to him, a lopsided grin on his handsome face. "We're lucky I did."

God, Minghao wants to kiss him.

-

Sometimes life is happy, and sometimes it isn't.

After the outing with Junhui, he gets back to work, and this time he left with hickeys forming a collar around his neck and trails down his shoulders and chest.

He'd almost forgotten how disgusting it felt. 

He'd even tried to imagine Junhui in the customer's place, which he would apologize internally for later, but that didn't work.

Junhui would never do something like that to him.

-

Wonwoo stops him after work one day, looking stormy and dangerous.

"What happened to your neck?" He asks, his baritone making the question even more threatening than usual.

"A client."

"Who? Minghao, the contract specifically stated that the client has to have your consent." Wonwoo gripped the back of the chair tightly, as if he was imagining it as the client's neck.

"He won't come around anymore." Minghao hopes so. He doesn't want a murder on Wonwoo's hands.

-

One day he meets a client who's willing to pay more than double Minghao's prices as long as he can do whatever he wants to him for three days.

It sounds dangerous. Minghao almost says no, but he gets a call from his sister back in Anshan. His mother fell one day while cleaning the stairs at her job as a janitor in an office building and her leg as well as right arm is broken.

He knows his sister is working five jobs in order to uphold herself and their mother, and so he accepts the client's offer.

-

It goes fine at first, but then it gets worse.

Turns out the client happens to be a sadist, and every time Minghao would try to stop him from doing something, all he would do is growl into the younger's ear- "Keep your pretty little mouth shut. I paid you. You agreed to it."

It gets to the point that Minghao is counting down the hours rather than days to when this all ends. His body is tired and he's being cared for apart from the sex. That doesn't stop him from aching from the bones and muscle of his arms and legs to the bone and muscle in his ribs and actual organs.

It feels like a cold, numbing pain, like holding your breath for too long in cold water.

There's still twenty seven hours till it ends. Minghao doesn't know if he can take it for much longer.

 

Three hours before it ends, he closes his eyes and doesn't know what happens next.

-

He fled from China with his sister and mother when he was six, with nothing other than the clothes on their backs.

His mother worked seven jobs on weekdays and eight on the weekends, as a cleaner, janitor, waitress, dishwasher, and her most extravagant job was as a cashier at a convenience store. He and his sister would watch their mother come back exhausted from work, barely able to catch her breath before having to head to the next one. She brought her next job's uniform to her preceding one because she had just enough time to change in her workplace.

He hated that he couldn't help. He hated that he wasn't old enough or qualified enough to work and take some of that pressing weight off his mother's slowly sinking shoulders.

The two never knew the reason that their mother had brought them here until they heard it, from her own mouth, when they were almost asleep one night in their cramped room. 

There were better, more possibilities, she said.

Maybe he did think so when he actually got the chance to go to school and he worked hard, so hard, so that he could get a full scholarship to college. He started working two, then three jobs at once, five on the weekends.

At least they were together, he thought. At least I have them, and they have me.

But that didn't last for long when his mother was caught and deported back to Anshan, and after that, his sister, who went back on her own without telling Minghao.

Imagine coming home one day and finding your one room empty. No sisters or mothers or love left in the place.

Maybe that's why he couldn't stand it.

Maybe that's why he started.

-

"Minghao! Minghao, can you hear me?"

The voice calling him is a nice voice. It's deep and velvety but also silvery like the best storytellers'.

"Minghao, please, wake up." 

Huh, weird. The voice is speaking in Mandarin.

He opens his eyes with difficulty and glances around the hazy room. It smells like cold antiseptic and bedsheets, and a faint smell of lilac detergent and orange blossoms and sandalwood and maybe a hint of lemon. 

He likes how the latter smells. The first two, not so much.

Wait, was he in the hospital?

"Thank god, MInghao."

A handsome, structured face leaps into view, and a name comes with it. Jun, Junhui.

"Hey, Jun." He says weakly, his eyes slowly gliding from the way Jun's eyes seem darker and how his skin is duller than usual. He attempts to sit up only for Jun to lay a strong, but gentle hand on his shoulder.

Don't get up. You'll hurt yourself." Minghao wants to protest but has to succumb to the pounding he was slowly becoming aware of, coming from the inside of his skull and the soreness in his limbs.

"What happened?" He asks. All he remembers is a dark room and - was he tied up? The memory corresponds to the marks around his wrists when he looks. Jun is looking stormy, and he has to relax his grip on the bedpost before speaking- Minghao watches his fingers loosen, tighten, loosen around the white metal.

"Your... client." Jun inhales. "He was, uh, quite panicked when you collapsed. Do you remember that?" Minghao shakes his head no. 

"Well, he was pretty nervous about getting caught so he called in anonymously for an ambulance and fled. Thing is the police managed to trace the number- he chucked the phone into a nearby alley, but a storeowner recognized him from the pictures we'd managed to find after looking through the records at your center. We've got a team going after him." Jun took a breath, and looks down at the bedsheets before looking up at Minghao again.

The younger is lost in thought. 

"How did you know I was admitted to the hospital?" He manages.

"Wonwoo called me."

"Shit, Wonwoo. What'd he do?" Minghao suddenly thinks up all the things the intimidating man and his friends, Seungcheol and Jihoon, and that tall, mildly scary Kim Mingyu could do to a person.

"He was livid. After calling me he went off about how he was going to find the guy and dissect him while still alive and sell off his organs to buy a gold dildo to shove up his sadistic ass."

"..woah."

They sit in silence for awhile, Jun coaxing Minghao to take some sips of water to cool down his dry throat.

When Minghao finishes his water, Jun takes the cup from him and sets it on his bedside table.

"Minghao-" Jun sighs, taking Minghao's frail hand in between both of his own. 

"I know what you're gonna say, and I can't explain it."

Jun looks at Minghao, and they're close enough that the elder can tell that the other has more to say, so he waits and lets him say it.

"It's just- my mom. In Anshan. She fell and I know my sister can't afford the costs. It was a good offer when he first mentioned it but I didn't know-"

"Minghao, have I ever told you what I did for a living?"

The younger boy stops midsentence and stares at Jun, his eyes slanted and curious as he shakes his head.

Jun sighs. "My family owns a hospital back in China."

"What, you're a doctor?"

"No, I actually work as a dance instructor, but what I was saying is- I could've asked my family for the check-up for your mother. They owe me a lot and I'm sure they would've done it."

Jun lowers his head, avoiding Minghao's gaze. 

"I'm so sorry, Hao, I could've saved you from all this bullshit-"

"No, no, it's not you, but- have you contacted your family? About my mom?"

"Yeah, she's resting now. She wanted to call you but I told her you were studying in an area with no phone service."

"Good call," Minghao says half-heartedly, his heart squeezing at the prospect of lying to his mom.

"But what's important is-" Jun's sentence is interrupted by the door slamming open and Wonwoo rushing in.

"We found the bastard. He's in the airport lounge- he booked a flight to Cali. The police are on their way."

Jun stands up immediately. "Let's go right now, then. Except-" He turns to look at Minghao, who's kind of extremely confused.

"It's fine. You guys go. I'll be okay here."

"Are you sure?" Jun says hesitantly.

"Well, that's more of a priority right now-" Minghao suddenly is silenced by Jun's lips on his, a chaste but somehow still loving and gentle kiss that promised Jun's vengeance better than his words ever could.

"I'll be right back."

And then he left, and Minghao was left in his bed, dazed and warm.

-

"So, drinks are on Jun, right?" Seungcheol jokes. They're at a bar all of them frequent and Wonwoo, Jun, Seungcheol and Minghao are enjoying some time together after the three of them practically pulverized the bastard who made Minghao go through the pain he didn't deserve.

Minghao is slightly fragile, due to him just being out of the hospital just a week ago, and Jun is carefully monitoring his every drink, making sure that he doesn't chug anything or take in too much.

Wonwoo appraises them over the edge of his glass. "So, are you guys an official thing yet?"

"That depends." Jun says, glancing at Minghao for a split second before looking at Wonwoo, a hint of a grin in his lips. "Are you and Kim Mingyu official yet?"

"Touche."

"Kidding." Jun laughs, and Cheol giggles in that extremely Seungcheol-like way before raising his glass.

"Here's to kicking the ass of that sick bastard." Cheol says, and all of them cheer, clinking their glasses together before taking a swift gulp- well, three of them do, with Minghao taking a tentative sip and Jun watching him out of the corner of his eye.

"Thank you all for being there for me this whole time." Minghao says, and Wonwoo smiles as Cheol reaches over to clap him on the back (lightly).

"And you, Moon Junhui-" Minghao leans over to kiss him, fully, softly, and the other two cheer quietly. He can feel the elder smiling under the kiss as he pulls away.

"...You owe me a beach date." 

Jun laughs, and wraps a gentle arm around Minghao's shoulder, pulling him closer. 

"Well, are you free tomorrow?"

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thats it, my assessments are coming up so i most likely wont be updating for a week but stay tuned and if u have anything to say please comment, i love reading em :) hope you enjoyed!


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